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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

House Managers Make Case with Never-Before-Seen Riot Video; Biden Talks Infrastructure with Senators, Visits NIH; Biden's First Call with Chines President Xi, Amid Rising Tensions; Trump Advisers Say He Hasn't Shown Remorse for Insurrection; Minority Americans Lack Equal Access to Coronavirus Vaccines; Powell: Real Unemployment Rate Closer to 10 Percent. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired February 11, 2021 - 04:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[04:00:00]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Another day in Washington in the books. Disturbing new video emerged, and bravery and heroism of officers assigned to protect the Capitol shown anew. CNN's impeachment coverage continues next with "EARLY START."

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is an early, EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Laura Jarrett. It's Thursday, February 11th. It's 4 a.m. here in New York.

Eight riveting hours down and eight to go for the Democratic impeachment managers. Their powerful presentation on Wednesday focusing not just on how Trump incited violence on January 6th but how he laid the groundwork for months, months of cultivating the big lie. Condoning violence when it happened. Goading his supporters until they finally stormed the Capitol in a deadly mob.

Previously unseen security footage showing how top lawmakers and Capitol police came within just feet of disaster. This is majority leader Chuck Schumer being led away by security only to be run back the other way as the mob was closing. And here is former Vice President Mike Pence being rushed away just seconds ahead of the attackers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA) HOUSE IMPEACHMENT MANAGER: You know how close you came to the mob. Some of you, I understand, could hear them, but most of the public does not know how close these rioters came to you. As you were moving through that hallway, I paced it off, you were just 58 steps away from where the mob was amassing and where police were rushing to stop them. They were yelling.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Top Democrats said their staffers were a direct target of that mob. You're watching House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's staff running to a conference room and frantically barricading themselves in as the threat grows closer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOICE OF PELOSI STAFFER: They're with ... we need Capitol Police come into the hallway. They're pounding on doors trying to find her.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where are you, Nancy? We're looking for you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nancy. Oh, Nancy. Nancy. Where are you, Nancy?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: This presentation yesterday was riveting, and Republican Senators were watching all of this footage. Some of them were shaken, but it will change minds. CNN's Jessica Dean is live on Capitol Hill. We're told you could hear a pin drop during this testimony.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning to you, Christine. A lot of this footage, most of it had never been seen before. And remember, so many of these Senators had been pulled off the floor when it was actually happening that a lot of them said after seeing this video yesterday that it was the first time, they really got a full picture of what was going on around the Capitol and so very close to where they were as well. That video was loud and all of the Senator's eyes were on it.

Senator Susan Collins saying afterwards you could practically hear a pin drop in there. And that had not been the case all day. Some of them had been going in and out. But when it came to watching this video and seeing what exactly was unfolding, the Senators were wrapped and certainly paying attention. And one key part that really caught a lot of attention yesterday was this new clip of video showing officer Eugene Goodman, who of course was heroic in his efforts of leading the mob away from the Senators. Kind of using himself as bait in a way.

But you see that video there, that's Mitt Romney who he tells to turn around. Senator Mitt Romney who you see then runs away. So also probably, you know, saving Senator Mitt Romney as well as he runs down the hallway and tells him to turn around.

Other members of the GOP, and it is worth noting as well, that Senator Romney after seeing that video did thank officer Goodman for what he did. And some of the -- there is his statement right there that he expressed his appreciation to him for coming to his aid.

And other members of the GOP, like Senator Murkowski afterward were definitely shaken by what they saw. But that remains that other members of the Republican Party, namely Senator Josh Hawley, he called it a waste of time. Senator John Cornyn from Texas after that video, ran, telling he simply didn't have anything to say after that. So the question remains that will it actually move any needles here.

[04:05:00] Of course you'll remember Senator Hawley was one of the leaders of that group that was essentially pushing the "stop the steal" movement, that false movement that there had been election fraud which there had not been widespread election fraud of course. And also slowing down the certification, kind of ginning that crowd that day as well.

But today they get back together at noon, as you guys mentioned. They'll have eight additional hours as well to finish their presentation, and they may not use all of that. But we will see what else they bring to the Senators today as they try to make their case again making former president Donald Trump directly responsible for what happened here, that deadly insurrection on January 6th -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right Jessica, thank you so much. We know you'll be following up for us all day today -- Laura.

JARRETT: Federal authorities are making progress in their search for the killer of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick. An official tells CNN new video evidence helped the FBI and prosecutors narrow their search to a handful of suspects. One theory, investigators are considering is that the suspects used a chemical irritant like bear spray that may have caused Sicknick to suffer a fatal reaction. Officer Sicknick collapsed in his office and died one day after the riot.

While impeachment grips Congress, the White House is governing. Today President Biden will meet with a bipartisan group of Senators to talk about infrastructure before he visits the National Institutes of Health.

Meanwhile, the president is making a big foreign policy move. His first call with a key world leader, Chinese President Xi Jinping. CNN's Selina Wang is live in Tokyo for us. Selina, the call to Xi last night came just a few hours after President Biden was at the Pentagon and announced a full review of U.S. strategy with China. What more can you tell us about this?

SELINA WANG, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well Laura, Biden has made it very clear early in his presidency that China is a top priority. This is one of the most important bilateral relationships in the 21st century and Biden has inherited a messy one from Trump. It's clear that from a personal approach with Xi Jinping, Biden is taking a more moderate and diplomatic approach than Trump did.

But fundamentally, the Biden administration agrees with Trump's approach to be tougher on China. What that take issue with is the way Trump went about it. In this call with Xi Jinping, Biden raised concerns around China's aggression abroad as well as the alleged human rights abuses at home. But also offered cooperation on areas of mutual interest like climate change and nuclear proliferation.

According to Chinese state media, Xi Jinping warned Biden against treading very carefully when it comes to Xinjian and Hong Kong and Taiwan, using an often used phrase in Chinese state media that they were, quote, Chinese internal affairs. Xi Jinping also said that if these two great powers do not cooperate, they risk disaster.

Now when it comes to key differences, we're already seeing Biden return to multi-literalism, once again working with friends and allies, as well as a focus on investing at home. Especially in high technology to boost America's competitiveness. Now as your mentioned, we know that Biden is doing a sweeping review of the policies when it comes to China. But those tariffs on China are remaining in place for now -- Laura.

JARRETT: All right Selina Wang, thank you so much for your all your reporting.

ROMANS: OK, eight minutes past the hour. There's no greater offense than saying sorry. How the man on trial is reacting to the impeachment trial. CNN is live from West Palm Beach next.

[04:10:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Through all of these horrific videos shown at the impeachment trial, the man who incited that violence remains unmoved. A source tells CNN the new video was undeniably powerful. But asked if the former president has any remorse, the source laughed. And said that to Trump, there's no greater offense than saying sorry. CNN's Boris Sanchez is live near Mar-a-Lago for us this morning in West Palm Beach. Boris, Trump's legal defense fell short Tuesday. So how are they planning to rebut House Democrats' presentation here?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine. It's certainly going to be an uphill battle for them. Part of the reason that Donald Trump was so angry at his legal team on Tuesday is because he felt that they did not put forward compelling television. He didn't think they did a good enough job of selling his case to the American people.

So now we're learning that the Trump legal team is scrambling to put together a series of videos and visual aids that they feel will strongly help the president in seeking an acquittal. We're learning that these videos are looking to paint Democrats in a bad light. Specifically Democrats that previously lost elections but did not concede right away. And the Trump team is going to try to liken that to the president calling for his supporters to fight on Capitol Hill on January 6th.

Notably we're learning that the Trump attorneys are also going to point the finger at Democrats and suggest that they are glorifying violence with their presentations during these proceedings. Keep in mind, having covered Donald Trump for some time, he has been using violent rhetoric, both on the campaign trail and in office for about as long as he's been in politics. That having been said, the use of these visual aids and videos does affords him a sort of win in that it limits the limits the speaking time that his attorneys are going to have, which we saw on Tuesday, did not win him much praise from fellow Republicans and even close allies. Notably Senate Republicans want this to be over with and they feel that his approach will expedite the process -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right Boris, thank you so much. You got up early for us this morning on this impeachment week -- impeachment part two week. Thank you, Boris.

JARRETT: Still ahead for you, the Biden administration, state and local officials have all promised to address equity when it comes to who have been given a vaccine. What happens to people who have been locked out of appointments for so long already.

[04:15:00]

We're going to break down why this is happening next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JARRETT: Every day the numbers on the side of your screen there show you how many people in this country have been vaccinated so far. But what those numbers don't show you is who can't get a shot easily and who is. And the numbers don't tell you why this is happening. I wanted to investigate the story of why. Here's what I found.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[04:20:00]

JARRETT (voice-over): Rossi is a small family-run pharmacy in Brooklyn. But its modest frame belies the heavy load it's been carrying for the last four weeks.

AMBAR KELUSKAR, PHARMACIST, ROSSI PHARMACY: Some of us who are just really breaking down from stress.

JARRETT (voice-over): After a mountain of paperwork, the Moderna vaccine finally arrived. And since then Rossi pharmacist Ambar Keluskar, says the shop has been overrun with appointment requests.

KELUSKAR: Our rollout plan went out the window.

JARRETT (voice-over): Keluskar's family has owned Rossi since the early 1990s. And he says he noticed his usual customers who live in this predominantly black and Latino neighborhood weren't the ones scooping up the slot. Who was coming?

KELUSKAR: Mostly patients from Long Island, Manhattan, Westchester. We can kind of very clearly tell who's here for the vaccine, who's here for normal pharmacy business.

JARRETT: But how do you know?

KELUSKAR: They're white and look confused.

JARRETT (voice-over): Rossi is like many other pharmacies and clinics now on the frontlines of an equity crisis when it comes to who is receiving vaccines in such high demand and short supply. In New York City, critical data is missing on a little over 300,000

people who've received one dose of a vaccine but have no reported race or ethnicity. And in the available data, the racial disparities are staggering. Out of roughly 300,000 residents who received at least one dose so far, 46 percent were white, whereas only 12 percent were black even though black people make up nearly a quarter of the city's population.

And nationwide the CDC says black and Hispanic people are almost three times more likely to die of COVID-19 than white people. So how is it that nearly two months into the city's vaccination effort the people who face some of the greatest risk from COVID are still largely left behind when it comes to getting a shot?

IVELYSE ANDINO, FOUNDER, RADICAL HEALTH: There is some hesitancy, but I think beyond that it is concrete access.

JARRETT (voice-over): Public health experts and advocates like Ivelyse Andino, say the first problem is the way most appointments are booked online.

ANDINO: The challenges are for folks maybe who don't have access to a computer, who don't speak the language. It's really challenging to find the place, do all of the things I talked about, sign up and get here. Beyond that, you know, there's a lot of eligibility requirements.

JARRETT (voice-over): Then there's the issue of where to go for a shot. State and local leaders have promised more efforts to reach minority communities and point to mass vaccination sites. Sites like this one at Yankee Stadium that limited to Bronx residents, but it's a frustrating solution if you can't get there.

ANDINO: This site at Yankee Stadium, this is the most accessible to the folks in the north Bronx. Beyond that, like the taking off of work, coming in during the middle of the day, childcare. Asking people to come to a center and get what they need instead of meeting them where they are.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JARRETT (on camera): Meeting people where they are. It's something I heard over and over again, Christine, as I worked on this story. And you know, so many people just simply do not have the time to sit on their phone, sit at a computer scanning for vaccine appointments all day. People have jobs. People have children. They have real lives. And they just don't have the time to do this. Even if they have access to a computer.

And you know, progress is being made on this. I want to mention that Governor Cuomo yesterday announced two new vaccine sites in minority communities that got to vaccinate 3,000 people a day. He hopes but there's still so much that needs to be done on this.

ROMANS: Absolutely, and I'm so glad you're shining a light on that. I mean, in a crisis is when you can see sort of the underlying structural inequality in the American economy. This is a perfect example of that.

JARRETT: That's right.

ROMANS: Laura, thanks for that.

Joblessness still at great recession levels. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell says official statistics dramatically understate the pain in the labor market. On paper the jobless rate at 6.3 percent is the lowest of a pandemic, but not for a good reason. Another 400,000 people dropped out of the labor market in January alone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEROME POWELL, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: We are still very far from a strong labor market. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that many unemployed individuals have been misclassified as unemployed. Correcting this misclassification and counting those who have left the labor force since last February as unemployed would boost the unemployment rate to close to 10 percent in January.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Close to 10 percent would rival the worst point of the great recession. 10.1 percent in October 2009. The economy still down 10 million jobs since this pandemic began. And the Fed chief noted stark inequality in the job crisis. Consider this, for the top 20 percent of earners, the jobless rate is only 4 percent. For the bottom earners, the jobless rate is an astonishing 17 percent, Laura. That's almost depression-level unemployment for many of these workers -- these low wage workers.

JARRETT: Framing it that way I think is so helpful so that you can really see it. You know, we hear the numbers, but I think that's a helpful way to look at it, Christine.

[04:25:00]

All right. Connecting the dots. Democratic impeachment managers argue months of provocations led to the foreseeable and predictable mob at the Capitol. Hear how overwhelmed Capitol police responded in real time next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JARRETT: Good morning. This is "EARLY START." I'm Laura Jarrett.

ROMANS: Good morning. I'm Christine Romans. Just about 30 minutes past the hour this Thursday morning.

And when they wrap up their case today, Democratic impeachment managers will have made a compelling case linking the former president to the deadly Capitol insurrection. They focused not only on that fateful day, but they also drew a line back to the months of bogus provocations about election fraud that riled up his supporters until they stormed the seat of government.

Never before seen video included former Vice President Mike Pence being rushed away, right there, as rioters closed in just seconds.